Thursday, March 18, 2010

Hi there!I'm so excited to be guest blogging at Imperfectly Beautiful. I have to say -- Amanda is one of my favorite, favorite people in the blogging world. She is so creative, so smart and so sweet!!! Thanks for letting me visit!

I'm Jen from tatertots & jello.And I have a quick little project to bring some Spring sunshine to your table.

{20 Minute Spring Table Runner Project}

I was at Target the other day when I saw these fun placemats. I fell in love with them because they kind of remind me of crocheted doilies. And I am having a little doily fascination lately. Plus, they had really great Spring colors. So I bought a few -- and oh ya, they were a really good price too - that doesn't hurt!

Materials:

Placemats -- you can use as many as you like depending on how long you want your runner to be. I used three.

Scraps of materials -- two coordinating prints

Buttons

Doilies/burlap or whatever you want to use under your rosettes

Ribbon -- one spool (9 feet)

Needle and thread

I brought them home and experimented and thought they might make a cute table runner. So the first thing I did was attach the placemats together -- overlapping. I used a simple needle and thread. I attached them at both sides of each placemat.

Then I made some simple flowers using coordinating fabric. I cut a 2 inch wide, by 2 foot strip of fabric from both fabrics. I folded each strip of fabric accordian-style.

Then I secured the end of the fabric by sewing through all the ends of the material with 4 stitches. Then I wrapped it around to meet at the other side so it looked like a flower. And then I stitched up that side. Under one of the flowers I attached a doily. And on the other flower I attached it to a circle of burlap.

On top of the flowers I attached some fabric scraps and then a sparkly button. Then I attached both flowers to the placemats.

The last thing I did was thread ribbon through the holes in the edges of the placemats. If you are using regular placemats with no holes, you can sew the ribbon or glue the ribbon around the edges of the placemats. I had a little bit of leftover ribbon so i tied a little around each of the rosettes so the ends stick out from under the flowers.

It's simple, fast and easy. I love the way it brightens up my kitchen!!!

I hope you are having a wonderful getaway with your family, Amanda!! Thanks so much for letting me come by! And stop by my blog sometime if you have time -- tatertots & jello.

Have an amazing day!

XOXO

Jen is one of my besties in the bloggy world! I am amazed daily by the awesome projects she comes up with. She is seriously one of THE most creative people I have ever met! So, thank you Jen, for sharing your fabulousness with us today. Your spring table is gorgeous. And I love that you made that runner out of placemats...what a great idea. I love ya girl! {{{smooch}}}